D 



THE SPIRIT OF THE 
COMING ERA 



AN ADDRESS 



BY 



HON. ROBERT LANSING 

SECRETARY OF STATE 

DELIVERED ON OCTOBER 10. 1918, AT A DINNER 
IN CELEBRATION OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNI- 
VERSARY OF AUBURN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
AUBURN. N. Y 




^^ 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1918 




Book >J-=-X- 



THE SPIRIT OF THE 
COMING ERA 



AN ADDRESS 

BY 

HON. ROBERT LANSING 



SECRETARY OF STATE 



DELIVERED ON OCTOBER 10. 1918, AT A DINNER 
IN CELEBRATION OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNI- 
VERSARY OF AUBURN THEOLOGICAL^SEMINARY 
AUBURN, N. Y 




WASHINGTON 

QQVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE' 

1918 



n, of i> 

NOV 19 






THE SPIRIT OF THE COMING ERA. 

It is the natural and the proper thing for one on an occasion 
such as this, which marks the close of a century of usefulness 
by an institution devoted to the advancement of right thinking 
and right living, to remember the past and rejoice in all that 
has been achieved. But in these days of war we are irresistibly 
drawn to the present. Before this critical time in the historj' 
of mankind the past was an agreeable theme, because, in the 
course of events which have gone to make up the lives of 
nations and institutions and to mark the progress of our intel- 
lectual development, we read — or at least thought that we 
read — the possibilities of the future. 

The last four years have in large measure shaken our faith 
in the ability of the human reason to draw true deductions from 
a series of accomplished facts. Only after this terrible catas- 
trophe had fallen upon the world did most of us realize thai 
had we not misinterpreted history for the past quarter of a 
century' we would have perceived what the end would be. We 
know now that this great conflict was inevitable. We know 
now that a savage beast controlling the peoples of Centra]. Eu- 
rope had been waiting for the day when it would be strong 
enough to leap upon an unsuspecting world and master it. 
What we know now is very different from our peaceful dreams 
of five years ago. 

In view of our blindness, of our failure to read the futurt 
aright, we may well hesitate to look forward beyond the daj 
when Prussianism will be ground to powder by the might of 
the united democracies of the earth. I fix upon that event as 
the beginning of a new era for mankind, because it requires no 
divine gift of prophecy to foresee its accomplishment. It is 
as certain as anything human can be which lies in the future. 
We know that we will be the victors in this world struggle. 
We know that the German military leaders and their forces 

(3) 



will be defeated. With that mighty task ended the world will 
enter upon a new stage of civilization. It is to that era we must 
turn our thoughts even now in the midst of this great war if we 
are to be ready, as we ought to be ready, to meet intelligently 
the difficult problems which we will be called upon to solve. 

For this reason I do not look back into the past, but forward 
into the future, which is so vitally important to us all. We must 
cast aside many of our conceptions of the proper relationships 
between nations and between individuals; we must revise many 
ideas which we believed to be established for all time ; we must 
free our minds of ancient prejudice and cherished theories, so 
that we can adjust our lives to the changes which are bound to 
come. 

The principles upon which a general peace will be made be 
tween the warring nations have been clearly stated by President 
Wilson. He declared them in his addresses of January 8, Feb- 
ruary 11, and July 4, and again in his masterly and compre- 
hensive utterance at New York but two weeks ago. These prin- 
ciples of justice must guide those charged with the negotiation 
of the great treaty of peace and must find expression in that 
momentous document which will lay the foundation for a world 
transformed. 

For anyone whose words might be interpreted as the views of 
this Government to go further than the President has by pro- 
claiming a catalogue of peace terms seems to me unwise. Pre- 
mature declarations of details too often work mischievous re- 
sults, particularly if the selfish interests of many nations are 
involved. Let us recognize the true bases of peace and stand 
rigidly in support of the principles on which these bases are 
founded. We entered the war to maintain those principles, 
and they must be maintained at all hazard. 

Thoughtful men must know that the peace which is to come 
will not be a lasting peace if its terms are written in anger or 
if revenge rather than the desire for strict justice and the com- 
mon good is the underlying motive of those who are charged 
with the grave responsibility of drafting the greatest treaty 
which this world has ever known. 

I think that it is sufficient in these days of toil and struggle, 
wliile the Beast is still at large, to assert that the peace which 



will come when the world is safe will be a peace founded on 
justice and righteousness, a peace which will satisfy the just 
but not the unjust wishes of all peoples. Let us not forget thai 
while stern justice without mercy is un-Christian, mercy which 
destroys justice is equally un-Christian. I am thankful that I 
am a Presbj^terian and believe in a God of justice as well as a 
God of mercy. When the time comes to balance the account— 
and it seems to be drawing near as the vassals of Germany seek 
refuge from the day of wrath — the authors of the frightful 
wrongs committed against mankind should not be forgotten. 

It had not been my purpose to consider peace even to this 
extent because my thought was of the time beyond. I shall 
go no further but assume that a universal peace internationally 
just will usher in a new era and a new phase of civilization, to 
which we will have to conform our ideas so that we may not 
futilely oppose but may wisely apply the irresistible influences 
which these years of conflict have brought forth and which will 
materially affect the social order. 

The period of readjustment and restoration which will follow 
the disorganization and destruction caused by the war will tax 
human wisdom to the uttermost. In a conflict so universal as 
to involve the whole earth, in a conflict which has compelled 
the mobilization of all the manhood and resources of the na- 
tions, required the expenditure of wealth fabulous beyond com- 
prehension, and forced governments to assume extraordinary 
powers over national and individual energies, new impulses of 
human action have been set in motion not only in the political, 
industrial, and commercial spheres, but in the structure of 
society and in the spiritual life of mankind. Many of the funda- 
mental principles of the present social order will be threatened, 
some Avill be changed, some discarded, while novel and possibly 
extravagant and dangerous doctrines will find earnest and 
honest advocates. With all this we must reckon. 

After the horrors, the unspeakable agonies, which humanity 
has endured as a consequence of the old political organization 
of the world it would be unreasonable to expect the peoples 
who have borne so much to accept as a basis of national and 
international order that which previously existed. The status 
quo ante bellum of society, as well as of boundaries and inter- 

?6?37— 18- — 2 



national relations, seems impossible. This, I believe, must be 
accepted as a necessary premise in developing a program for 
the future. I do not see how it can be avoided, and 1 am not 
sure that it would be wise to avoid it if we could. 

I believe that we must also assume another premise in striv- 
ing to solve the problems w^hich lie before us. It is that the 
temper of the peoples who have been engaged in this interne- 
cine struggle will for some time after the war, and certainly 
immediately after it, be impressed with hostilitj^ and hatred for 
one another. The result of this mental attitude will make more 
difficult the establishment of a true equilibrium between na 
lions, for it will produce an intemperate bias which will impair 
judgment and cause vindictiveness toward former enemies 
unless influential and sober-minded men resist this natural 
feeling and preserve their minds open and free, so that they will 
impartially weigh the truth and not impute guilt to the mis- 
guided or the ignorant. I know^ that this is a difficult thing to 
do, because it is humanly difficult to dissociate the instrument 
of evil from the one Avho conceives the evil and directs the 
instrument. But none the less sound common sense imposes 
upon us the duty of correcting, in so far as we are able, this 
tendency which will, if it continues, weaken materially the true 
spirit of justice which is (essential to enduring peace. 

You who are present to-night, believing in the brotherhood of 
man and trained in those precepts which have given the stand- 
ard of right to this age, know, as I know, that the American 
people ought not, after the war is won, to cherish a pitiless hate 
for all those who have served the military dictators of Central 
Europe. We should discriminate between the intelligent and 
the ignorant, between the responsible and the irresponsible, be- 
tween the master and the serf. It seems to me that it is the plain 
duty of all those who can influence public opinion in this coun- 
ti^ to so guide American thought that passion will not prevent 
the putting into operation of a wise plan for the readjustment 
of the world when peace is restored. 

There is also another influence which Christian men and 
women must combat if this new era is to be an era of nobler 
life and loftier ideals than that which has ended in the grim 
scenes of death and suffering which we have witnessed. For 



years we as a people have fallen more and more under the 
influence of materialism. Physical pleasure and ease became 
the objects of chief desire and their attainment the supreme 
purpose of life. Similar tendencies were manifest in other 
lands to an even greater degree than in America. The drift 
away from spiritualit}^ and toward materialism was a marked 
characteristic of the years immediately preceding the war, 
and the abnormal development of materialistic ideas in the 
German mind was a potent force, possibly the potent force, in 
arousing the lust for dominion, which was the underlying cause 
of this conflict of the nations. 

To the problems of the future, problems which involve politi- 
cal institutions, industrial and commercial systems, and the 
obligations and rights of individuals as well as of nations, we 
must apply a more spiritual standard than the material one to 
which we have become accustomed. This we must do if we are 
to have a better and happier world. It is the verdict of history 
that a cold calculating materialism sows in the life of a people 
the seeds of degeneracy rather than the seeds of progress. 

It is not unreasonable, in view of the recent past, to fear that 
there will be a strong tendency to apply materialistic doctrines 
to the state of peace following the war, and I am by no means 
sure that these doctrines, which will be termed " humanitarian," 
will not find warm supporters among sincere Christians, for it 
can hardly be denied that the Christian Church in later years 
has been increasingly disposed to emphasize w^orks rather than 
faith. In these days of supreme physical effort and sacrifice we 
ought not to forget that the primary purpose of the Church is> 
to implant in the hearts of men those spiritual truths which 
give to the individual a right conception of his duty to his 
fellow men and to society. In these truths and in their appli- 
cation to human conduct lies the only preventative against the 
continued spread of materialism and those theories of social 
order which disregard Christian ideals and Christian precepts 
and which will debase rather than elevate mankind. 

It is my firm belief that unless these eternal principles become 
a living force in the transformation of the world the peace 
which will be established will not be an enduring peace. Ma- 
terialism is an exaltation of the physical. Its chief end is earthly 



8 

happiness obtained in large measure through power and posses- 
sions. It is essentially selfish. It even bases morality and justice 
indirectly on selfish interest. A state of selfishness can hardly 
fail to produce ambition and greed and the efforts to gratify 
them. These are the evils which gave us militarism and war 
in the past, and so will they again if they are permitted to 
dominate men and governments. Materialism as the basic idea 
of the new order of things will revive those very impulses to 
do evil which the world to-day abhors. 

Humanity is not unprepared to receive the great spiritual 
truths which should be the foundation of the relations between 
men and between nations if we are to have a continuing state 
of peace. War. with all its appeal to the primitive instincts 
of man, has a measure of compensation in that it compels men 
who go forth to battle to turn their thoughts to that which lies 
beyond this life as they realize its uncertainty. And not alone 
to those who face danger and sudden death in the service of 
their country do these thoughts come, but also to those millions 
at home Avho await with anxious hearts in fear and hope foi 
loved ones across the sea. The life of America is sobered by the 
peril of her sons. The mind turns instinctively to divine pro- 
tection and to the expectation of eternity. The spirit of the 
nation is reaching forward and upward to the Supreme Being 
for strength and counsel. 

There has never been, in my opinion, a time when the Chris- 
tian Church could labor in a more fertile field, not alone by 
ministering to the moral and physical needs of the men who are 
fighting our battles, great as that duty is, but also by arousing 
in them the spiritual fortitude to face death and suffering with 
no fear for the future and by giving to those who grieve the 
comfort that this life is not the end. 

In thus serving the present the Church will render a lasting 
service to the future by implanting the principles of Christianity 
in the souls of men, in the souls of nations. The new era born 
in blood and fire on the battle fields of Europe must be a Chris- 
tian era in reality and not alone in name. The years to come 
must be years of fraternity and common purpose. Interna- 
tional injustice must cease. All men^ must be free from the 
oppression of arbitrary power. Unreasoning class hatreds and 



9 

class tyrannies must come to an end. Society must be organized 
on principles of justice and liberty. The world must be ruled 
by the dominant will to do that which is right. I see no other 
complete solution to the great problems which will soon engross 
the thought of mankind, no other means of destroying forever 
that soulless materialism which plunged the nations into these 
years of agony. 

To prepare the way for the coming of this new era, to incul- 
cate the truth in the hearts of men, to bring them into the right 
attitude toward God and toward mankind, is the greatest serv- 
ice that can be rendered to the present generation and to future 
generations, whose happiness depends on the principles which 
will govern the reorganization of society. 

There is no time to be lost if this nation is to be made ready 
to enter with the right spirit and the right principles upon the 
task of readjustment and reconstruction. There is no time to 
be lost, because the day is drawing near when the spirit of 
liberty will stand triumphant above the spirit of militarism, 
of which the Central Empires are possessed. The millions ol 
America's bravest and best, the very flower of her manhood, 
who have crossed the sea or are preparing to embark are the 
earnest of victorJ^ For four long years the armies of the Allies 
have heroically withstood the legions of the Beast. These war- 
worn veterans, whose unfaltering valor knows no equal, are 
to-day, with the splendid men of this Republic by their side, 
sweeping back the invaders broken in spirit, sullen and hope- 
less. It is the beginning of the end. The hour of triumph is 
drawing near. The day of the war lords is almost over. 

To those noble Americans, our friends and brothers, to those 
who have made the supreme sacrifice, and to those who have 
dedicated their lives to the cause of their country, to the brave 
men of the allied nations who have so gallantly died that lib- 
erty might live, we owe a debt which imposes on us the obliga- 
tion of making certain that their service and sacrifice have not 
been in vain. They fought and are lighting for a better world; 
it lies with us to do our part to make it better. 

O 



'im^,„f^!;. CONGRESS 



020WW1 



